Yesterday DC Comics announced “Before Watchmen”, a set of prequels to Watchmen being made without the involvement of Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons (details and all the cover art released so far available here). Gibbons has already issued a polite response to the news. Now we also have Alan Moore’s response, which is as delightfully crotchety as we had hoped.

Mr. Moore, who has disassociated himself from DC Comics and the industry at large, called the new venture “completely shameless.” Speaking by telephone from his home in Northampton, England, Mr. Moore said, “I tend to take this latest development as a kind of eager confirmation that they are still apparently dependent on ideas that I had 25 years ago.” [NYTimes]

That’s a burn.

Moore also told the New York Times the prequels weaken the argument that comics can be literature. “As far as I know,” he said, “there weren’t that many prequels or sequels to Moby Dick.” Au contraire, Mister Moore. May we direct your attention to 2010: Moby Dick, a completely necessary nugget of cinematic gold.

Still, Mr. Moore said he was unlikely to stand in the way of Before Watchmen or to fight the project in court, where he said DC Comics would meet him with an “infinite battery of lawyers.”

“I don’t want money,” he said. “What I want is for this not to happen.”

Upon hearing that someone might not want money, a lawyer from DC Comics responded by pointing and shrieking like Donald Sutherland in Invasion of the Body Snatchers.

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Whenever Moore goes on about how DC mistreats his characters, I can’t help but think that Lewis Carroll, L. Frank Baum and J. M. Barrie would have a thing or two to say about Moore’s treatment of their characters in Lost Girls.

Thank you! I can’t say there is a need for the Watchmen prequels, but I had this same thought when Moore started talking about sequels to great literature. I am sure he would use the argument that they had fallen into public domain but seriously. Once you turn classical characters into stars of a sex comic, you really have no place to argue about someone else adding back story to yours.

Well, it’s like rule 34 on the internet. I can look up My Little Pony fucking Megatron on the back of one of those walkers from Star Wars (and I’m sure that Sonic would have to work his way in there somehow) and that’s just fine. The problem would be if someone wanted to make a comic about it. Moore should have just released Lost Girls on his DA page we could have avoided this whole conversation. lol.

I am against the prequels, but Alan Moore complaining is getting stale. I get it that he hates everything and everyone that is not him. It just gets boring. You had a great piece of work with Watchmen and Swamp Thing and got a lot of undeserved credit for the gibberish that is V for Vendetta.

so, all the complainers out there need to do something really extreme… dont. just don’t buy it. don’t support it. buy something else or save your money.

as long as shit like this turns a profit, DC and Warners OWE IT to their stockholders to continue. problem is, we comic fans buy shit we hate just so we can hold it in our hands and hate it and complain. and DC knows that.

so this time, what im saying is, don’t give in! don’t purchase this filth.

We are all going to buy it for the reasons you outlined. Comic fans are just that way. We always want more.

I am against it because I think Watchmen was fine the way it is. Still, if DC puts top talent on it, and the indications are that they will, it can be interesting. That is what happened with Swamp Thing. Moore turned a minor character into a must read book and Scott Snyder is doing the same with it now. Keep expanding.

The Evil Twin’s point is hard to refute, but two wrongs don’t make a right.
It’s fair to say Moore’s decision was based on some kind of creative exploration, while DC just want more money. DC WILL run that money machine until it runs out of juice, then run it on fumes. They simply have to in order to maintain profitability. Them shareholders love profitability.